Matthew 22:34-46John 8:31-36Romans 3:19-28 Dear Partner in Preaching, Depending on what day you choose to lift up this Sunday, you have a variety of passages from which to choose. If you’re preaching Sunday as the 21st Sunday after Pentecost (A), you have Matthew’s story of Jesus’ famous declaration that “love the Lord your God” and “love your neighbor” are the chief commandments of Scripture (Mt 22). If you’re observing Reformation Sunday, you have Jesus connection between truth and freedom (Jn 8) and Paul’s lynch-pin discussion of righteousness (Rom 3). So many interesting, intriguing, and at some points...

Luke 9:28-36 Dear Partner in Preaching, Just a few exegetical thoughts about this familiar, and somewhat confounding, story. But first, why confounding? I think because it’s just odd enough (with the appearance of OT heroes), just strange enough (with Jesus all shimmery and shiny), and named with a word we rarely use, to leave us as confused as Peter, James, and John were. Further, it’s an odd placeholder and bridge between Jesus’ baptism (noting how similar are the words from the voice from heaven here and to Jesus at the River Jordan [3:22]) and Jesus’ resurrection (noting this time the similarity between the description...

John 8:31-36 Dear Partner in Preaching, I suspect that the Gospel doesn’t mean very much to the self-made man or woman. Do you know what I mean? We define “Gospel” in a variety of ways – salvation, grace, forgiveness, life, and so on. Today Jesus adds another way to speak of the Gospel – freedom. Good words, all. But the common denominator among them is that they assume need. The one who values salvation knows that he or she needs saving. The one to whom grace is important is aware of the need for grace. Forgiveness implies sin. And so on. No wonder Jesus’ interlocutors are offended. Jesus says, apparently to persons who already...

Matthew 5:38-48 Dear Partner, Ahh, the temptations we preachers are going to feel as we read this difficult passage! I’ve preached it enough, and you probably have to, to be familiar with at least two of them. The first will be to not take it seriously. I call this the “Lutheran temptation” simply because when Lutherans get to really difficult says from Jesus, we tend to assume that Jesus didn’t really expect us to do these things, only to remind us of our inability to satisfy God’s commands so that we might flee to Jesus for forgiveness and grace. While I’m not sure this actually reflects Luther’s thought, some of his...

Luke 12:32-40 Dear Partner in Preaching, One of my favorite questions to ask in visioning work or counseling sessions is as follows: “What would you love to try if you knew you couldn’t fail?” You may have heard that question, or asked it, yourself. I like it because it prompts us to cast our gaze beyond our present circumstances and challenges, elements in our lives that, while perhaps real, often cast a larger than necessary shadow. We are evolutionarily wired to overestimate risk and danger because, well, in a harsh environment underestimating risk and danger can be deadly. But one might argue that in our relatively civilized world,...